1947 News and Interesting History Tidbits

Edinburgh Festival
The first Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh Fringe festival opens in August for the performing arts bringing performers of music, comedy, drama, opera, and dance from around the world to perform.

The two festivals ( Official and Fringe ) have grown to the largest performing arts festival in the world attracting thousands of performers and millions of visitors to Edinburgh, Scotland every year in August.

Roswell Alien Timeline
William Brazel notices strange debris while working on the Foster ranch, where he was foreman, some 70 miles (110 km) north of Roswell

7th July: Roswell Army Air Field. Major Jesse Marcel collects debris 75 miles northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, scattered over an area 300 years wide and ¾ of a mile long. This led to rumors of an alien crash.

8th July: The Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issue a press release stating that personnel had recovered a crashed "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, sparking intense media interest, later that day the press release is amended to say a "weather balloon" had been recovered .

1978: All goes quiet for 30 years until 1978 when Stanton T. Friedman interviews Major Jesse Marcel, who was involved with the original recovery of the debris in 1947 who expressed his belief that the military had covered up the recovery of an alien spacecraft.

February 1980: The National Enquirer interviews with Major Jesse Marcel bringing national and worldwide attention for the Roswell incident.

1989: Former mortician Glenn Dennis gives a detailed personal account claiming that alien autopsies were carried out at the Roswell base.

Since then Government reports have been released explaining the incident as likely debris from a secret government program called Project Mogul.

Was Roswell a cover up or just a series of unexplained events with rational explanations will depend on who you believe and the number of "eye witness accounts" that were given for publicity or the governments explanation of a secret project.

In differing books on the subject time lines appear to have changed.

Coal Mine Explosion Centralia Illinois
An explosion at a Coal mine in Centralia, Illinois, trapped more than 100 miners and sent deadly gas through the mine's tunnels .

Loyalty Investigation On Federal Employees
President Harry S. Truman issues an executive decree establishing a sweeping loyalty investigation of federal employees who needed to demonstrate complete and unswerving loyalty to the United States.

Inflated Car Prices Due To Shortages
Buying a new car from a main new car dealer can mean months or even years to wait but if you go to your local used car dealer you can find the latest 1947 models brand new but at a price of between $500 and $1000 more than the list price, they go direct to the factories and buy them then transport around the country

The Tony Awards Started
The Tony Awards for Broadway Musicals Stars, Music, Costume etc. started 1947

Polaroid Land Camera Demonstrated
Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his instant camera and associated film. Called the Land Camera, , which could produce a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds. Two years later he put 57 Polaroid Land Cameras at Boston's Jordan Marsh department store before the Christmas holiday, and they sold out within the first day after the demonstration.

The Truman Doctrine
Very soon after the war President Truman had decided to use America to stop the spread of communism around the world telling congress the country must intervene wherever necessary throughout the world to prevent the subjection of free people to Communist inspired totalitarian regimes at the expense of their national integrity.

One of the first requests to provide this support around the world to stop the spread of communism was to give $400 million in aid to bolster the hard-pressed Greek and Turkish governments against Communist pressure. This is also known as the beginning of "The Truman Doctrine" and the beginning of the battle to stop the spread of communism.

Severe Snow Storm North East US
A severe snowstorm covers the Northeastern part of the United States , burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours; the severe weather was blamed for some 80 deaths.

First Of The Dead Sea Scrolls Found
The first of First Of The Dead Sea Scrolls Found are found in a cave near Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in Israel.
Over the next 20 years more than 1,000 documents with great religious and historical significance are found in caves in the area including texts from the Hebrew Bible made before 100 AD.

First Ferrari Sports Cars Produced
After nearly 20 years of motor racing Ferrari begins production of Italian sports cars to help fund the Scuderia Ferrari Racing Team.
The first Ferrari road car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine, the cars were both beautiful and fast and quickly gained a reputation for excellence.

"Bugsy" Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel is murdered at the Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, at the order of mob associates angered over the soaring costs of Siegel’s pet project, the Flamingo resort now costing in the region of $6,000,000 in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the 1972 movie the Godfather the character of Moe Greene is heavily based on Siegel.

British Coal Industry Nationalised
Following the creation of National Coal Board ( NCB )in 1946 Great Britain nationalises the coal industry transferring the assets of approximately 800 private colliery companies to the National Coal Board. The coal industry continued to be nationalised until 1994 when it was again privatised.

India and Pakistan Gain Independence
India Gains Independence from the UK in 1947
At the same time the old India was split into the two countries of India and Pakistan

Kon-Tiki Expedition
A Norwegian expedition including 5 Norwegians and a Swede headed by Thor Heyerdahl set out on the raft The Kon-Tiki to cross the 4000 miles of Pacific Ocean to prove that the Polynesian Islands were settled in a similar way thousands of years ago, the raft is equipped with a square sail and paddles.

Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson, becomes the first African American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers

Freighter Blast Texas Kills 500
A French freighter "Grandcamp" , loaded with ammonium nitrate ( Fertilizer ), exploded at a port in Texas . The blast caused other explosions at a nearby chemical plant, spreading fires across oil refineries along the port. An estimated 500 People were killed by the blast and the ensuing fires which swept the port and the surrounding town.

Tornado Woodward, Oklahoma
A severe Tornado hit Woodward, Oklahoma where 200 residential blocks were completely leveled and nearly 1,000 homes were razed. 107 people were killed in Woodward and many more were injured.

Voice Of America
With the start of the cold war as Germany is split following World War II America introduced the transmission of Voice Of America to the Russian People as part of it's propaganda campaign against Communism and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Kashmir Not Resolved
Deputy Prime Minister of India, Sandar Valiabbhai Patel announced that India and Pakistan reached an accord on the division between the two countries. However, the issue of Kashmir is not resolved.

Paris Subway Closed
The Paris subway stopped running and electric power was cut as the General Confederation of Labour, a communist party, protested the government’s proposal to force them back to work. The GCL demanded $9.50 - $12.00 a month more in wages, but the government promised non-striking workers $240.00 for the month of November. Over 2 million French workers remained inactive due to the strike.

The Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park in Florida is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. It contains the southern 20% of the Everglades which was established as a National Park in 1934 is dedicated by President Harry S. Truman.

Lynching Trial 28 Acquitted
28 acquitted of lynching a black man after taking him from the county jail in South Carolina for stabbing a white taxi driver after the defense council who criticized northern interference and demanded acquittal to show the north it should stay out of South Carolina and let us run our counties he also said he is dead and more like him should be dead.

1947 With World War II Ended
With the end of World War II great things happened in technology in 1947 as all the pent up inventions and ideas broke through, here are some below
The Transistor is invented
The Frisbee is invented
First instant camera
First Tubeless Tyre
First LP produced ( For those to young to remember an LP was forerunner to today's CD Album ) means long playing record.
Mobile Phone Invented
Slinky Invented
And on a lighter side this was also the year of the Roswell UFO incident

Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon
President Harry S. Truman issues the first presidential pardon to a lucky turkey when he donated a live bird to a local farm, where the turkey was guaranteed a long life unmolested by stuffing or gravy.

Maine Forest Fires 1947
Forest fires continue to claim millions of acres of forests and property in Maine after strong fresh winds start new outbreaks across the State which now has more than 50 separate forest fires to contend with . Other states in New England are also affected with forest fires but appear to be under control currently.
1947 is labeled “The Year that Maine Burned”. A large portion of the damage done by these fires was in the Mount Desert Island area.
More than a couple of hundred thousand acres of land along with several hundred of homes and at least a few hundred cottages were destroyed from the time that this fire started on October 17 of this year until the time it ended on November 14.

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